[Fawn]

Takes place Leaf-fall 12, y7.
Previous hunting thread took place Leaf-fall 9, y7.
Snowpaw's ceremony was Leaf-fall 2, y7.
She was made an apprentice one season late, at 9 moons instead of 6 moons.

Leaf-fall 12 The sky is clear with small wisps of cloud. A soft breeze stirs the fallen leaves from the ground, creating a comforting rustling sound. The temperatures are usual, with no extreme highs or lows.

Fawnspring

37 MOONS - SHE-CAT - TREECLAN

"Keep up, Snowpaw! We won't be out long, I promise."

Their day had started with the dawn patrol, and though Fawnspring had a deep fondness for sleeping in, seeing Skyfall and Appleshade on a day-to-day basis gave her the motivation to shake the drowsiness away. She couldn't disappoint them by being a poor mentor to Snowpaw, not when she had always admired the white-furred odd-eyed senior warrior that had sired her apprentice.

Was she a little overzealous? Perhaps a little. I just want to do the best job I can do. It took me so long to get an apprentice of my own. Is Lionstar testing me? He must have been. Fawnspring longed to pick apart the golden leader's brain to see if she could find what made him skip over her for several apprentice ceremonies, but dwelling on the past wasn't going to get her anywhere.

Fawnspring waved her tail, saying her goodbyes to the rest of the dawn patrol making its way back to camp. It was still early enough in the day that the birdsong was a downright raucus chorus, filling her ears with a chattering she didn't understand but found pleasant. "I know a few berry bushes that the birds and mice like to eat from," she mewed, waiting for Snowpaw to sidle up next to her. "We'll try to catch one apiece, and then we can go home. How does that sound?"

What do I do if she doesn't catch anything? How long should I give her before we should go back? Ugh she wished so badly she had more confidence in the whole process. It was as if she had bees in her brain, making every thought vibrate with an undercurrent of doubt.

As we soared above the town that never loved me
I realized I finally had a family
❋

290~ Words ❋ BlooRey DVD ❋ Notes

[BlooRey DVD]

Mismatched eyes blinked at what she could only describe as the overly excited form of her mentor. Pristine white paws stepped much less enthusiastically than their older counterpart, Snowpaw’s mouth turning down in a frown as she studied Fawnspring.

Well, I certainly see where she got her name. Thought the ivory apprentice, who bit her tongue to avoid vocalizing her distaste at the idea of doing even more than just the dawn patrol this morning. Her paws were already sore, wasn’t that enough work for one morning?

Without even glancing down, the haughty apprentice sidestepped a patch of muddied ground she distrusted more than the rest, having no intention of feeling mud seep between her claws again. Despite her reservations, you had to give the warrior-to-be some credit. She was following Fawnspring, rather than vehemently refusing to do something she had no desire to do.

Being scolded once by Skyfall and having him explain to her what being respectful meant was enough Disappointed Father (™) for her, thank you.

Clearing her throat slightly, white tail arcing high above her back to avoid certain disaster if she kept it low, Snowpaw pushed herself just a little faster to keep up, as Fawnspring had put it. Shooting a rather displeased stare towards the birds shrieking up in the trees, Snowpaw raised her voice to be heard above the cacophony of bird ‘song’, ears flattened slightly against her skull in displeasure.

“Alright, if that is what you wish to do. However… Remind me, if you please: what tactics best suit hunting birds and mice again?” She asked, ducking below the reach of a low hanging branch. Snowpaw had no intention of getting sticks in her coat either.

Snowpaw

"I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected."

Apprentice ✿ TreeClan ✿ 9 Moons

Fawn ~280 words Sorry I’m late! quote by Rarity

[Fawn]

Fawnspring

37 MOONS - SHE-CAT - TREECLAN

Perfect, a question she felt confident she had the answer to. Fawnspring slowed, turning to face Snowpaw and address her head on rather than walk through the forest, letting her voice drift back to the younger cat. Eye contact and clear communication were important, after all. "Mice cannot see very well, so they rely on hearing, smell, and vibrations through the ground to understand what's going on. You'll want to approach them nice and slowly. It will take patience, because they're quite fast. Not as fast as squirrels, but still. It's less important about where you hide, just that you're downwind of them. With birds though,"

Fawnspring's thoughts quickly bunched up and then sorted themselves, eager to get the information out there for her first pupil. "With birds it's the opposite. They have excellent vision and they take off as soon as they sense something's amiss. Their sense of smell isn't very good, so being upwind or downwind doesn't matter. You'll have to be very stealthy, Snowpaw, and use your environment to your advantage."

She could even cover yourself in mud to-- The warrioress had the good sense to pounce on that idea and squash it like some sort of awful, wriggling bug. There was no chance in Silverpelt that Snowpaw would ever agree to deliberately getting her coat dirty, and Fawnspring wasn't about to push. Learning was important, these were Snowpaw's most formative years. But was it so terrible to hope the apprentice would like her, too?

"We can try mice first." She said encouragingly, not wanting Snowpaw to get frustrated by the difficulty birds presented. "You've always been very mindful of where your paws go, so I'll bet you'll have no problems."

As we soared above the town that never loved me
I realized I finally had a family
❋

270~ Words ❋ BlooRey DVD ❋ Notes

[BlooRey DVD]

With a twitch of her nose, she watched Fawnspring as the older she-cat turned around to face her for the explanation. Mismatched eyes roamed across her mentor's features, the snow-white she-cat being mindful not to unintentionally zone out during the explanation she'd asked for in the first place. Truly, she didn't want to be here; she wanted to be back in camp, listening to her mother tell stories while grooming her fur. But, Fawnspring wasn't a bad mentor. So she supposed the least she could do was respect her request to practice some hunting techniques and actually pay attention to them.

At the mention of her paws, Snowpaw glanced toward the ground where she'd stopped moving. Inspecting one of her white legs, the ivory apprentice tilted her head thoughtfully. Whether or not it was meant as one, Snowpaw certainly took what Fawnspring had said as a compliment. She was very good at keeping track of where she was putting her paws. It had been a few days since she'd stepped in anything disgusting because she wasn't paying attention. Did Fawnspring mean to say this habit of hers might actually prove to be useful when hunting mice? Her ear flicked curiously before she bobbed her head in acknowledgement.

She took three steps forward before a thought crossed her mind. A thought that sounded curiously like her father's voice, whispering something about being polite again. Halting with one paw in the air, she looked over her shoulder at Fawnspring again, her tail kinking slightly as she searched for the least awkward way to say it. "Um.. Thank you. For.. For the explanation. It was very... Thorough, and insightful." She said after a moment, nodding her head again awkwardly and forcing a little smile.

Task done, she focused once more on the task at paw. Standing a little ways away, the she-cat opened her jaws to taste the air, ears rotating to catch any sound. Her left ear shivered as a whisper of wind tickled it, making her pause a moment in thought. Looking over her shoulder again, back toward her mentor, the snow-colored she-cat twitched her whiskers again. "Downwind... The wind is coming from over there." She said rather matter-of-factly, her tail swishing over her back to point in the appropriate direction. "So when I find a mouse to hunt, I want to make sure that I stand wherever the wind won't carry my scent. So... If the mouse is there-"

Another extravagant point of her tail, before she picked a deliberate path over some suspiciously soggy grass. "Then I should stand somewhere like... Here. ..Right..?" She asked, looking back toward her mentor expectantly. She really was trying to learn. Being a warrior just seemed like... So much work.

Snowpaw

"I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected."

Apprentice ✿ TreeClan ✿ 9 Moons

Fawn ~400 words Huzzah! quote by Rarity

[Fawn]

Fawnspring

47 MOONS - SHE-CAT - TREECLAN

"You're very welcome," Fawnspring replied, delightedly taken aback by Snowpaw's polite gratitude. She would have been content to simply watch the apprentice put her words to heart and simply try her best, but Fawnspring would be kidding herself if those small social moments didn't matter to her too. She'd been raised properly. As the daughter of a loner of no uncertain bravery and grit, Fawnspring had done all she could to prove she was just as smart, just as capable as any Clan cat.

Coupled with an eagerness to learn, Fawnspring naturally adhered to manners and good social graces whenever possible. Nobody wanted to talk to someone rude or brusque, especially when she'd been young. Words like impudent and arrogant tended to follow 'paws who spoke more than they listened. With a brilliant white coat, it was easy to keep her gaze trained on Snowpaw, and Fawnspring observed the placement of those brilliant white paws and could see the younger she-cat figuring things out for herself.

Fawnspring had swallow her excitement, relief and a giddy sort of delight flooding through her like a spring downpour. "Yes, that's right." The diminutive she-cat skipped closer, her whiskers twitching in sudden surprise as she realized Snowpaw had deliberately stepped in a soggy place for the sake of a hunting advantage. "You're doing great. I know it feels gross underpaw, we will get ourselves cleaned at the sparkling brook after this. I promise. I'll back up to give you some room, let me know if you can scent any mice."

Do I need to go over the different scent types? Fawnspring pictured herself bringing prey carcasses one-after-the-other to Snowpaw's delicate pink nose and asking her to memorize each one. It was as absurd an image as it was unnecessary. Any cat of this valley grew up knowing the difference between a mouse and a sparrow and a fish. The scents were unmistakeable.

As we soared above the town that never loved me
I realized I finally had a family
❋

317 Words ❋ BlooRey DVD ❋ Notes: feel free to bring in the skunk soon!